Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Binding
I'm relatively sure Claire is going to have the foot binding condition if she doesn't give up these shoes soon! I'm also relatively sure she's color blind.
This is her preferred outfit for the bus ride and walk to (and from) gymnastics. My feet hurt just looking at hers.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
mercy
As many of you know, the Holcombes are big fans of Tim Keller, which is our "live version" of C.S. Lewis - he's our movie star!
We listen to his podcasts, read his books, get mad when people take his words out of context, quote him at too many parties, and will knock down the doors of our church when he shows up in Hong Kong.
For those of you in the dark, you need to know this man! He's the senior pastor of Redeemer Church in Manhattan and he's an intellectual giant who loves the Lord and knows the gospel. He's also a lover of literature and movies, so he speaks to our whole household!
I found this review of Keller's book, Generous Justice (or maybe it's Ministries of Mercy, can't remember). It's worth the 22 seconds it will take to read it. There is a great need for mercy all over this world, including the US. There is poverty and injustice everywhere and I believe we are all called to do something about it. I think reading it before seeing the videos is helpful.
What I appreciate about the book is the balance that Keller brings to the subject. Some people who write about mercy ministries tend towards the extreme. “Unless you are living in poverty in the worst neighborhood in the city then you are an affluent Christian who probably really isn’t a Christian!” Keller balances his discussion about mercy ministries, not by leaving a backdoor for people to escape from participating in mercy ministries, but by showing the broad range of what mercy ministries is really all about. No matter what your life situation is or what your spiritual gifts may be, after reading the book you will not only feel motivated to participate in ministries of mercy, but also have many different areas and ways that you can be involved in.
Whether you are mowing your elderly neighbor’s lawn in Glenside or clothing the homeless on 15th and Market, you are participating in the ministries of mercy. No matter where your location or situation, Keller makes sure that you realize that doing mercy is not optional. It is a mark of being a follower of Jesus.
To say that evangelism can be done without also doing social concern is to forget that our goal is not individual “decisions,” but the bringing of all life and creation under the lordship of Christ, the kingdom of God.
I have three videos that I took while in Cambodia and they really just show the poverty of this nation. Two of the videos are about 30 or 40 seconds and the third is less than three minutes. It's hard to capture anything on film, unless you're my daddy, and we know no one, and I mean no one, can be that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVOeoChJIOc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgdU25RHRk0
Monday, February 10, 2014
Take them home
Oh my gosh, did I want to pull out my adoptive parent credentials and ask for takers!
For so many reasons, you want to bundle them up in your arms and take them to safety. Forrest was doing a good job of bundling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHF7_LLvbJ4 (this is the sweetest video of the children singing for us). At the end of the video you will see little Khema stretching her hands wide and then bringing her hands together in a very yoga-ish move; but I learned something very interesting in this "hands-in-prayer-while-bowing-the-head" movement. When you greet a person in Cambodia (and, probably many other countries I know nothing about), you put your hands together near or below your chin and bow in a gesture to say hello. It means nothing else. When you place your hands high - about forehead level - and bow, it is for God. So, the children would often pray to God with their hands together with thumbs at their foreheads.
For so many reasons, you want to bundle them up in your arms and take them to safety. Forrest was doing a good job of bundling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHF7_LLvbJ4 (this is the sweetest video of the children singing for us). At the end of the video you will see little Khema stretching her hands wide and then bringing her hands together in a very yoga-ish move; but I learned something very interesting in this "hands-in-prayer-while-bowing-the-head" movement. When you greet a person in Cambodia (and, probably many other countries I know nothing about), you put your hands together near or below your chin and bow in a gesture to say hello. It means nothing else. When you place your hands high - about forehead level - and bow, it is for God. So, the children would often pray to God with their hands together with thumbs at their foreheads.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Hope
Each night while we were in Phnom Penh, we had the pleasure of being with a wonderful couple who work for Hagar and for World Relief in Cambodia. This couple could be the ultimate power couple in the US - a beautiful attorney in banking and finance married to an IT guy from Silcon Valley. Yet, they decided God wanted them to use their talents for those who had no voice, the victims of human trafficking in Cambodia. This couple, along with their 14 month old son, met us every evening for dinner, talking with us about the people we had been helping during the day. They were at our beck and call for any glitch in our schedule. We talked with them every night and it seemed someone was always calling to ask questions of one of them, yet we were not there to help either of their organizations. We were helping children who are under the care of other wonderful people giving of their lives to the children of Cambodia.
One of the perks of having this couple on the ground in Cambodia is their knowledge of the restaurant scene. They booked all of our meals at restaurants with a mission. Every place was a safe house and/or training ground for those rescued from a life on the street or a life in a trafficking situation.
The last night we were in Phnom Penh was one of our nicest meals, although all 31 of us ate for $223 USD, yet I found myself watching my children handle live tarantuals before eating cooked tarantuals! Jeff, of course, said the spiders tasted like fried soft-shell crab - whatever!
One of the perks of having this couple on the ground in Cambodia is their knowledge of the restaurant scene. They booked all of our meals at restaurants with a mission. Every place was a safe house and/or training ground for those rescued from a life on the street or a life in a trafficking situation.
Cambodia
| Today, most Cambodians live in extreme poverty, with more than 77 percent of the population earning less than $2 a day. (1) Women and children disproportionately bear the burden of intermittent employment and limited access to health and education services.Sexual and domestic violence are also realities within Cambodian society. Extreme poverty, low levels of literacy, gender inequities, alcoholism, and a history of civil war are all contributing factors. Cambodia also experiences significant internal and cross-border trafficking – it is a source, transit and destination country.In Cambodia, Hagar serves women and children who have survived the most extreme cases of human rights abuse – sexual exploitation and violent rape, trafficking for labour and forced work, domestic violence and acid attacks. Hagar walks the entire journey of recovery – through recovery shelters, legal support, education and employment programmes, health care, trauma counseling and transitional and reintegration support – so that our clients can live in community once again with dignity. |
Friday, February 7, 2014
hygiene
Hygiene just seems impossible in a place like this, but we made an attempt that seemed to be embraced.
When we got to the slums the moms set up a station to begin washing hair and removing lice with some fabulous lice combs. At first the dads and kids were passing out toothbrushes and crocs/flip flops, but the shoe line turned into the hair line. There was no need for a translator for this process. They saw us with the lice combs - and they saw those little critters coming out of a friend's head - and we were in business.
I wish I had a picture of the teenage boys tyring to comb lice out of girls' hip-length hair, while the young girls like Taylor and Claire were begging anyone to give them a lice comb.
Yet, this broke my heart to watch children and adults so eager for us to help. We knew the lice would return soon, but we also knew we could provide a few itch-free days. We left the lice combs behind, knowing this method is much better than depending on shampoo that could not be kept in supply.
I think we could have spent the entire week on this project alone.
Claire's tired and dirty feet at the end of a very long day.
Stepping Up
The wonderful people in Phnom Penh who have made an incredible choice to live amoung the people they are trying to help is inspiring.
I mentioned the JJ Center in the slums run by a woman who actually still works for Transworld Radio.
There is also a man who works closely with JJ, but runs a Christian school called, New Life. The need for these private schools is pressing, as the government schools are so lacking. Most of the kids in New Life have parents that pay for their tuition, which is pennies in comparison to private schools in other parts of the world. The man who runs the school tries to find kids from the slums to come to this school in hopes of changing the future. He offers money to the parents of the slum-kids: he offers the family the same income the child brings in to the family (by the child selling things from the rubbish heap). The parents sometimes try to come to the school and take the children back, but the director seems to keep these parents in control.
Our team performed a play for the kids at New Life. They all brought their little chairs out to the courtyard to watch and they were the sweetest and most repsectful little kids I've ever seen.
I mentioned the JJ Center in the slums run by a woman who actually still works for Transworld Radio.
There is also a man who works closely with JJ, but runs a Christian school called, New Life. The need for these private schools is pressing, as the government schools are so lacking. Most of the kids in New Life have parents that pay for their tuition, which is pennies in comparison to private schools in other parts of the world. The man who runs the school tries to find kids from the slums to come to this school in hopes of changing the future. He offers money to the parents of the slum-kids: he offers the family the same income the child brings in to the family (by the child selling things from the rubbish heap). The parents sometimes try to come to the school and take the children back, but the director seems to keep these parents in control.
Our team performed a play for the kids at New Life. They all brought their little chairs out to the courtyard to watch and they were the sweetest and most repsectful little kids I've ever seen.
This is one of the classrooms we painted for the school.
Shocking
I feel like I read a great deal about history and social issues around the world, and I pay attention to my fair share of news (complete with photos) on the internet, but nothing could compare me for the slums of Cambodia. There are 400 such slums in Phnom Penh.
In October, we were in Thailand - and we were definitely NOT in the luxury tourist spots of Thailand- and I felt we saw terribly poor conditions. But, we saw mile after mile of unbelievably sad living and working situations.
Our flight from HK was only two hours, so we were able to drop our bags and get moving to the school in the slum, JJ Center. As we were driving to the school, I just kept looking at the surroundings and wondering how in the world this would ever be able to change. No one obeyed the basic traffic rules, children were obviously working entirely too young, and adults were crammed into backs of trucks to get to their factory jobs.
Yet, in the midst of this poverty and injustice, we saw so many rays of hope. The Jehova Jira Center is one such ray. It's a small school in the middle of a slum, started by a Cambodian woman and her husband, who decided these young children needed a place to learn and a place to feel safe near their homes. Most of these children are very young (4 to 11 years old) and they often work in the rubbish heap to find something to sell for their families, but here they can learn and hopefully stay in school. These children are really loved at the center, a place that is surprisingly clean and comfortable in the midst of the filth.
While we were visiting the center, we played games with the kids and had a birthday party for all of them, complete with candles and cake and fried chicken! Of course, every single child saved half of his or her food to take home to siblings or parents. This speaks volumes!
In October, we were in Thailand - and we were definitely NOT in the luxury tourist spots of Thailand- and I felt we saw terribly poor conditions. But, we saw mile after mile of unbelievably sad living and working situations.
Our flight from HK was only two hours, so we were able to drop our bags and get moving to the school in the slum, JJ Center. As we were driving to the school, I just kept looking at the surroundings and wondering how in the world this would ever be able to change. No one obeyed the basic traffic rules, children were obviously working entirely too young, and adults were crammed into backs of trucks to get to their factory jobs.
Yet, in the midst of this poverty and injustice, we saw so many rays of hope. The Jehova Jira Center is one such ray. It's a small school in the middle of a slum, started by a Cambodian woman and her husband, who decided these young children needed a place to learn and a place to feel safe near their homes. Most of these children are very young (4 to 11 years old) and they often work in the rubbish heap to find something to sell for their families, but here they can learn and hopefully stay in school. These children are really loved at the center, a place that is surprisingly clean and comfortable in the midst of the filth.
While we were visiting the center, we played games with the kids and had a birthday party for all of them, complete with candles and cake and fried chicken! Of course, every single child saved half of his or her food to take home to siblings or parents. This speaks volumes!
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